Quickies: South Korea’s “Gamergate,” Scientology in Taiwan, and Men’s Inherent Distrust of Women

Instagram is building the anti-harassment tools Twitter won’t – “Instagram has been building a series of anti-harassment tools and plans to roll some of them out to all users in the coming weeks. According to The Washington Post, Instagram will let each user create their own banned words list, which will stop unwanted comments from being posted on their photos. Users may also gain the ability to turn comments off on a photo-by-photo basis, so someone could potentially disable comments entirely if they wanted to.” From Alex.

The Curious Rise of Scientology in Taiwan – “Scientology around the world is in broad retreat, but to be in Taiwan you would never know that. In an area slightly smaller than the combined size of Delaware and Maryland, with a total population of 23.4 million—roughly the same as that of the New York metropolitan area—Taiwan has 15 Scientology missions and churches. Per capita, it’s one of the most Scientology-friendly countries on earth. The island serves as a major source of donations and new members for the church, which has capitalized on L. Ron Hubbard’s early suggestions that he was a new Buddha.”

South Korea Is Contending With A ‘Gamergate’ Of Its Own — Over A T-Shirt – “Twelve hours after posting a photo of a shirt reading “Girls Do Not Need A Prince,” Kim Jayeon — who had been providing a voice for the popular video game Closers — was out of her job. Part of the problem was the source of the shirt. It’s put out by Megalia4, a South Korean feminist group. When Kim’s tweet surfaced on July 18, scores of male gamers demanded that she apologize for supporting what they call a ‘anti-man hate group.’ When Kim refused to budge, they bombarded Nexon, her employer and publisher of Closers, with complaints and refund requests, and soon, she was out.”

Could Women Be Trusted With Their Own Pregnancy Tests? – “Ms. Crane brought her model to work and begged her managers to consider her idea. They all said no. The company’s market was doctors, and doctors would hate this product that made their services seem less necessary. On top of that, her managers seemed terrified by scenarios in which hysterical women killed themselves. ‘What if a senator’s daughter, unmarried, found she was pregnant and jumped off a bridge?’ one asked. ‘The company would have to go under for that.’ ” From Lance.

3-D Printing a Better Prosthetic – “Sengeh’s idea is that a good-enough algorithm can eventually reproduce the expertise of a human prosthetist. Anywhere in the world, an amputee can send Sengeh a minimal set of data, and he can mail back a comfortable prosthetic socket. Alternatively, a 3-D printer in the amputee’s town could produce the socket on the same day the measurements were taken.”

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The Skepchick Network is a collection of smart and often sarcastic blogs focused on science and critical thinking. The original site is Skepchick.org, founded by Rebecca Watson in 2005 to discuss women’s issues from a skeptical standpoint.